After the Civil War, the United States experienced national and regional changes. In the South, Reconstruction came to an end and Jim Crow laws and sharecropping became the norm. In the West, miners, ranchers, and homesteaders flooded into the frontier aided by expanded railroad networks, government incentives, and the destruction of the Plains Indians. By 1890, the western frontier and Indian resistance came to an end. In the North (and Midwest), the U.S. experienced an industrial revolution in railroads, oil, steel, and electricity. During this era, modern corporations and monopolies were formed; Southern and Eastern European immigrants flooded to America; Nativism increased; urbanization led to skyscrapers, slums, political machines. During the Gilded Age, national politicians protected corporate America and the status quo and failed to meet the needs of Native Americans, unions, urban immigrants, African-Americans, and the Populists.
TEXTBOOK CHAPTERS FOR UNIT 1 5 - 6 - 7
Unit 1, The Gilded Age includes chapters 5, 6 and 7 from the text.
Chapter 5 pages 200 to 227 Chapter 6 pages 228 to 251 Chapter 7 pages 253 to 273
Chapter Briefs Chapter briefs provide short summaries for each section of a chapter. Each section is broken down into a few consise paragraphs with the main idea identified. All chapter briefs contain a few key review questions. To view go to the chapter briefs tab in the unit.